Maetrik - The Entity

Maetrik - The Entity
It makes sense for Eric Estornel to keep stoking the fires of his Maetrik moniker because, even he surely knows, you can't be as popular as Maceo Plex in 2011 without an inevitable backlash. On this evidence, though, leave it much longer and the two monikers will be tough to tease apart. Though slightly faster, more muscular and obviously machine-driven, the pleasant techno-lite served up here is as warm, sleek and buffed up as the house he makes for Crosstown. "Entity" is the furthest away, with jostling beats, drunken synths and a pummelling bassline driving forward with all the pristine precision you'd expect of something signed by Adam Beyer: it really does lock you in.

On the flip, "Astroid Funk" sounds like just that: it builds robot sounds and weird vox in loopy layers to a taut but funky arrangement of silvery sounds that come over exactly like Maceo Plex doing techno. So too digital-only cut "Revenge of Jack," which has more iron bar synths pinging about, plenty of oft-releasing piston pumps and an inexcusably lazy sample in the endlessly repeated word, "Jack." Two out of three ain't bad, though, especially given the success this Texan is currently enjoying elsewhere.

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Eric Estornel, under the names MAETRIK, MARIEL ITO, MACEO PLEX, and simply ESTORNEL - has been contributing to his musical world around him since 1993. Always searching for the future of electronic dance, Eric has never let himself be confined by the rules of styles or genres as he makes his way through such a political and fickle industry.
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